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Posted on 11/01/2016 8:48:06 PM PDT by BenLurkin
Water has been showing up in all sorts of unexpected places in our Solar System, such as the Moon, Mercury and Saturn’s moon Ganymede. Add one more place to the list: Asteroid 16 Psyche. This metal-rich asteroid may have traces of water molecules on its surface that shouldn’t be there, researchers say.
Psyche is thought to be the largest metallic asteroid in the Solar System, at 300 km (186 miles) across and likely consists of almost pure nickel-iron metal. Scientists had thought Psyche was made up of the leftover core of a protoplanet that was mostly destroyed by impacts billions of years ago, but they may now be rethinking that.
“The detection of a 3 micron hydration absorption band on Psyche suggests that this asteroid may not be metallic core, or it could be a metallic core that has been impacted by carbonaceous material over the past 4.5 Gyr,” the team said in their paper.
While previous observations of Psyche had shown no evidence for water on its surface, new observations with the NASA Infrared Telescope Facility found evidence for volatiles such as water or hydroxyl on the asteroid’s surface. Hydroxyl is a free radical consisting of one hydrogen atom bound to one oxygen atom.
...
For now, the source of the water on Psyche remains a mystery. But Redddy and his colleagues propose a few different explanations. One is, again, Psyche may not be as metallic as previously thought. Another option is that the water or hydroxyl could be the product of solar wind interacting with silicate minerals on Psyche’s surface, such as what is occurring on the Moon.
The most likely explanation, however is that the water seen on Psyche might have been delivered by carbonaceous asteroids that impacted Psyche in the distant past...
(Excerpt) Read more at universetoday.com ...
Very interesting. It seems water is many more places than originally thought.
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If the asteroid is pure metal, then this water must be metal too.
Pure speculation, nothing more.
Very hard water
Hey Culligan man!
Pure metal?
Horns up!
Hmm, a round asteroid with almost all of its mass made of metal, producing small amounts of water vapour.
Intelligent life outpost? Keeping an eye on Project Earth?
maybe the staff teleports home after shift.
9.8X10*16 tonnes of nickel-iron.
Total used in history is about 7.5X10*7 tons.
Yeah, but since it’s watered down, it ain’t worth a plug-nickel...
I don’t know about pure metal. I heard some Judas Priest and Black Sabbath but I thought I also heard a reggae track mixed in there.
I’d suspect electrical charge on the large body that attracts free-floating water molecules.
Sounds plausible.
Imagine capturing that into earth orbit for our industrial needs....perhaps someday!
“I’d like to return this asteroid. Only 4.5 Gyr old and it’s already starting to rust!”
Build a lot from that stash. Now if it were platinum! ;^)
“Now if it were platinum!”
Then platinum would be less than $60/tonne.
Glad I bought silver instead!
My needs for something like that would involve de-orbiting it during the State of the Union Address.
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